Page 68 of Playing with Temptation

“Hear him out,” Nate pleaded.

Kendra folded her arms. “My mother knew he was coming, didn’t she?”

“I wanted to make sure she and your sister were okay with this.” Nate placed a reassuring hand on hers. “We all want you to be happy, and you might not think so right now, but the state of your relationship with your father has caused a lot of pain.”

She pulled her hand away. “That’s my problem, Nate, not yours.”

“You don’t think it was my problem when you walked out because you were afraid you couldn’t trust me? That it isn’t Maya’s problem when she won’t set a date for her own wedding because of your dysfunctional relationship with your father?”

Kendra’s face was hot. Each stinging accusation felt like a jab with a hot cattle prod.

“I know what I’m asking isn’t easy, but it’s important. To all of us.” He whispered in her ear. “If something happened to your father tonight, would you be okay with how you two have left things?”

“No.” The answer came without thought.

“Then talk to him. You can do this.” Nate kissed her cheek. “And if you need me, I’m just down the hall.”

Nate patted her father’s shoulder briefly as he exited the room, closing the door behind him.

Kendra inhaled, remembering her mother’s words. He loved you…wanted to be in your life as much as he could.

It was the very opposite of what she’d believed her entire life, no matter how hard he’d tried to convince her otherwise.

Kendra looked ahead, her eyes not meeting her father’s. “So how’ve you been, Dad?”

Curtis Williams seemed to release a long-held breath as he sat beside her. “Physically, not too much to complain about. Mentally? It kills me that you and Dash aren’t part of my life. That I hardly get to see my grandson.”

Her father’s voice vibrated with raw emotion. For the first time, she felt his pain. Understood that he’d been hurting, too.

She placed her warm hand on his noticeably cooler one. He clutched it as if he’d been thrown a lifeline.

It was the first time she’d let him hold her hand since she’d been old enough to cross the street alone.

“I never meant to hurt you and Dash, but I couldn’t spend the rest of my life in a marriage that made your mother and me miserable. I know you don’t understand—”

“As an adult, I get that, but as a kid…it was devastating.” Tears rolled down her cheeks and she wiped at them angrily. “It was hard enough knowing that you’d left us. But what hurt most is I couldn’t understand why you didn’t love me and Dash enough to stay, but you chose to stay with Maya and Cole and their mom.”

“Don’t ever think I didn’t love you and your brother.” He squeezed her hand. “Walking away from my little boy and my baby girl was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”

“Then why’d you do it?”

Her father sighed. “Because I didn’t want you to grow up the way I did. With parents who resented the hell out of each other. In a house filled with anger and tension and constant arguing. I lived through that, and I didn’t want it for you and Dash.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell us that? All this time, I kept thinking that there must’ve been something about me that drove you away.”

“Kendra, I’m sorry I made you feel that way. I never meant to hurt you and Dash. I only wanted to protect you. Instead, I lost you both.”

“It was hard watching you be the perfect father to Maya and Cole. All I could think about was all the times you weren’t there for me. It hurt too much to be there and pretend everything was okay. It was easier to hold onto the resentment. So I did. And when I pulled away from you, you didn’t put up a fight. That only made me angrier.”

Her father shook his head. “I kept telling myself that you and your brother just needed a little space and then you’d come around. The truth is, I was hurt by your rejection, and it was easier not to deal with it. For that, I’m truly sorry. But know this…not a single day has gone by that I haven’t thought of you and your brother, hoping we could one day be a family again.”

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